Baseball | 5/10/2018 11:29:00 PM

Box Score
    BECKLEY, W.Va. – Senior ace Justin Retzer hurled a 3-hit shutout here Thursday night to lead West Liberty to a 9-0 win against Concord in the first round of the Mountain East Conference baseball tournament at Linda K. Epling Stadium.
    Coach Eric Burkle's Hilltoppers (21-26) will be back under the lights on Friday when they meet Charleston (31-20) in a 7 p.m. winners bracket contest. The Golden Eagles outslugged Notre Dame, 14-10, earlier on Thursday.
    Retzer was in command from start to finish against the Mountain Lions (26-22) as the veteran righthander finished with 9 strikeouts and just 2 walks. Concord never got a batter to third base until there were two out in the ninth inning and Retzer retired the next hitter on an infield grounder to complete the gem.
    Coby Eckstein gave Retzer all the offensive support he needed with an RBI single in the bottom of the third for a 1-0 West Liberty lead but the WLU offense was just getting started.
    The roof fell in on Concord in the bottom of the fourth when the Hilltoppers sent a dozen batters to the plate and seven of them scored.
    A RBI single from Bub Haddox and a clutch 2-out, 2-run base knock from Justice Jackson highlighted the uprising as the opportunistic Black and Gold took advantage of three walks, an error, a hit-by-pitch and a wild pitch to break the game wide open.
    Ethan Estes closed out the scoring with a sacrifice fly in the seventh but the issue had already been decided.
    Every Hilltopper starter either scored or drove in a run as West Liberty pounded out 10 hits against a trio of Mountain Lion hurlers.
    Haddox, Dalton Davis and Chad Matthus each stroked out a pair of singles while Eckstein picked up another RBI when he was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded to force in a run. Estes had a single to go along with his sacrifice fly.
    Parker Dyson, the reigning NCBWA Atlantic Region Pitcher of the Week, will get the start on the hill for West Liberty against Charleston on Friday. The teams split a doubleheader in their only regular season meeting with Dyson picking up the win for the Hilltoppers.
  Concord                                       000 000 000 - 0    3  1
West Liberty                               001 700 100 - 9  10  0
     Con: Beckner lp (6SO, 5W), Guay (4) (7SO, 1W), Morrison (7) (2SO, 0W) and Williams. Clark D, S;
     WLU: Retzer wp (9SO, 2W) and Davis.  V.Haddox 2S, rbi; Davis 2S; Matthus 2S; Jackson S, 2rbi; Eckstein S, 2rbi; Estes S, rbi Shepherd 8, W.Va. State 4
Charleston 14, Notre Dame 10
WEST LIBERTY 9, Concord 0 W.Va. State (28-21) vs. Notre Dame (19-31), Noon
Shepherd (35-13) vs. Concord (26-22), 3:30 p.m.
Charleston (31-20) vs. WEST LIBERTY (21-26), 7 p.m.